No doctor for BHUs in Gujar Khan tehsil

DHA-run facilities across district marred by personnel, supplies shortage

RAWALPINDI:

The nine basic health units (BHU) spread across the Gujar Khan tehsil do not have doctors, with similar personnel and equipment shortage impacting healthcare facilities under the Rawalpindi District Health Authority (DHA) across the district.

Patients visiting BHUs and rural health centres (RHC) in Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, Kahuta, Kallar Syedan, Kotli Sattian and Taxila have complained that these facilities have failed to provide adequate healthcare and reduced it ‘to a farce’ at most locations.

In Tehsil Gujar Khan, there are nine BHUs, all positions with none of them having a doctor, according to records maintained by the DHA. Patients visiting the facility have said support staff were managing the facility, and ‘providing treatment’.

Instead of resolving the issue of shortage of doctors, qualified staff, equipment and medical supplies, the DHA-run facilities have launched ‘comfort core services’ in an attempt to deflect focus from their deficiencies, said one person working at the authority on the condition of anonymity. It focuses on provision of basics such water, clean washrooms, lights, and fans.

The situation gets better in the case of RHCs, with the facility at Daultala having three positions for doctors with two currently filled.

At the Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital in Gujar Khan, two out of 14 positions for doctors were vacant.

In Kahuta, there are at least seven such positions across health centres. The THQ Hospital also has 15 doctors against 16 positions.

But the situation varies from area to area, with patients unable to find the right assistance despite the facility having the full roster of experts.

That isn’t the case at the BHUs in Kallar Syedan, where the two posts of doctors remain vacant. There was at least one such vacant post at a primary health centre in Kotli Sattian as well. Meanwhile, the area has six doctors against seven posts at the RHC.

In Murree, the positions for doctors remain vacant in multiple departments including the mobile dispensary unit. Meanwhile, the THQ Hospital has 10 doctors for 12 posts.

In a second THQ facility in Murree, there were 13 doctors with one position still vacant. Vacancies remain at the basic healthcare facility in Rawalpindi as well.

In Taxila, there are doctors in two out of three positions at rural health centres. The THQ has seven doctors working in eight positions.

DHA Chief Executive Dr Ijaz Ahmed said that the department was trying to hire get the personnel to fill the vacant slots. He claimed that the comfort care service would improve the experience of those visiting the hospital.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2023.